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Hillsborough County hopes for better relations with the City of Tampa by Mitch E. Perry

Over the past several years, enmitybetween the City of Tampa and Hillsborough County has appeared to get harden .

Recently, the Tampa Bay Area Legislative representatives rejected a motion put forth that would cut the number of city of Tampa representatives on both the Tampa Sports Authority and The Hillsborough-Tampa Planning Commission.

State Representative Kevin Ambler was pushing for such a change, saying that the County has grown so much more than the City in recent years, and that the representation on those boards was not reflective of that.

Today Hillsborough County Commissioner Jim Norman said it was critical for the County and City to come together, and therefore he would write directly to Mayor Pam Iorio about the 2 governments getting on the same page (roll tape#1 o.q.”what’s our responsibilities”)

The latest flare-up between the 2 bodies includes a dispute about how much The City would provide in cash to help build a major cancer tumor research center in Tampa.Again, Commissioner Norman (roll tape#2 o.q.”in these situations”)

Commissioner Mark Sharpe said communicating with the Mayor was an excellent idea, and said, in addition to County Administrator Pat Bean meeting with members of the Iorio administration ,Norman himself should make himself available to city officials

(roll tape#3 o.q.”it’s a great idea”)

As did the rest of the Commissioners, who voted 6-0 in favor of Norman writing what he calls a ‘positive, olive branch’ type letter to Mayor Iorio .